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Judge tosses lawsuit from ex-Marine who was jailed in Iran
A judge has thrown out a lawsuit from a former Marine who was jailed in Iran for more than four years and then denied a multimillion-dollar payout from a special U.S. government victims’ fund after an FBI espionage investigation into his travels.
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Once tortured in Iranian jail, ex-Marine fights spy claims
Newly filed court documents show that the FBI opened an investigation into Hekmati, on suspicions that he went to Iran to sell classified information to the regime. His lawyers say the government's suspicions, detailed in FBI documents and letters from the fund's special master denying payments, are groundless and based on hearsay. AdBut the FBI concluded that he went there intent on selling Iran classified information, according to an unsigned five-page summary of its investigation. Hekmati, the son of Iranian immigrants, says he researched Iran openly to cultivate an expertise on Iranian influence in Afghanistan. After Hekmati's lawyers warned they'd have to sue, the Justice Department cryptically indicated it was seeking a reconsideration of the award.